The two developments of modern plant breeding mentioned earlier, together with (1) a growing concentration of the seed and of the pesticides markets in the hands of few large corporations, and (2) a similar concentration in few hands of the food industry, have had, have and, in a scenario of business as usual, will continue to have some negative effects on our health. The increasing uniformity of what is grown inevitably entails increasing uniformity of what we eat, and this has been put in relation with a reduction of our immunitary defence system and the consequent rise of a whole range of diseases including cancers (Khamsi 2015). Also, since modern varieties, particularly cereals, are generally less nutritious, we must eat more to meet the daily requirements, thus contributing to the increase, now endemic, of obesity.

Because food is derived from seeds, it is at the way in which the seeds are produced and made available to farmers that we have to look for the solution to environmental problems including climate change and to our and future generations’ health. One solution is to change the way we select new varieties by moving back the process in farmers’ fields and by making farmers equal partners in the selection process, in a model known as participatory plant breeding (Ceccarelli et al. 2009). This genetic improvement model has several advantages such as an increase in agrobiodiversity, reduction of chemical inputs because it adapts crops to the environment rather than changing the environment, a higher benefit/cost ratio (Mustafa et al. 2006) and finally the recognition that farmers can play a key role in plant breeding by combining their traditional knowledge with that of the scientists (Halewood et al. 2007; Ceccarelli et al. 2000, 2009). This model of plant breeding has been implemented in a number of countries, in different agroecologies and with various crops (Ceccarelli 2015) including the terraced agriculture in Yemen (Ceccarelli et al. 2003).

13.5The Case of Yemen

The project, which allowed implementing participatory plant breeding (PPB) on the terraced agriculture of Yemen, was supported by the then System-Wide Program of Participatory Research and Gender Analysis (PRGA, later dismantled). The project was implemented in the Kuhlan Affar area, a steep mountain slope that descends from about 3000 m asl to about 800 m asl towards Wadi Sharis and addressed the terraced mountain slopes that range from 1700 m asl to 2800 m asl approximately, where 90% of the agriculture is located. The area is supported by traditional methods of water harvesting mainly terracing of mountain slopes. Most farming families still grow landraces and save part of their harvest as seed source for the subsequent year (Fig. 13.1).

The villages of the research area are very small in terms of population numbers. The villages of Kuhlan Affar are in Hajjah province, 123 km northwest of the capital Sana’a. The study area lies within the two districts of Sharis and Kuhlan in Hajjah province, which is located in the western escarpments of Yemen. At the time the

Fig. 13.1 A typical village in Yemen with the terraces in the background. Photo S. Ceccarelli

project was implemented, the total population of this province was estimated at about 1.5 million, which represented 7.8% of the total population of Yemen, and was growing at a rate of 3% annually. They produced about 5% of the total agricultural crop production of the country. Most people of Hajjah province worked in agriculture and cattle breeding. The total agricultural area in Hajjah province was estimated at about 124,600 ha, of which 36% or 46,000 ha is predominantly cultivated terraces and Wadi banks, and rangelands cover about 63% of the province or 78,000 ha. The area is famous for its coffee beans, fruit and cereals production. Tobacco and palm trees are also common in the plains. Kuhlan Affar is a remote area, on mountains, where living conditions and access to cities are difficult, and was chosen because the province represented the traditional dry lands farming systems in the country’s northwestern highlands; it was a typical example of areas neglected by agricultural research, and the area was characterized by subsistence agriculture.

The size of the terraces varies, mostly in relation to the slope—the steeper the slope the smaller the terrace. Each farming family usually owns more than one terrace, with an average farm size of only about 1.4 ha; usually, only one crop is planted in each terrace, but it is not uncommon to see terraces divided between lentil and barley or between sorghum and faba bean or even between all four crops. Agriculture is mainly rainfed with an annual average rainfall of 300–500 mm, falling in two seasons: March to April and August to September. It is the principal economic activity in the area and engages 80% of the population (Aw-Hassan et al. 2000). The most important crops are sorghum, wheat, lentil, barley, dry peas,

maize, millet, beans, fenugreek, coffee and qat (Ceccarelli et al. 2003). Mainly, local varieties dominate in these farming systems, and women and men farmers save part of their harvests as seed for next year planting and sometimes exchange it with neighbours under the assumption that this will improve productivity, but the seed quality is generally poor. For these reasons, we started a PPB programme in collaboration with the Agricultural Research and Extension Authority (AREA). Women started to be involved gradually into the PPB programme, especially when men farmers started to gain confidence in the project.

Three villages (Hasn Azam, Beit Al-Wali, and Al-Ashmor) were selected by the local breeders based on the importance of barley and lentil cropped in the area. The project was discussed with farmers in these villages through meetings where the objectives of collaborative research and its potential benefits for rural communities were discussed, and the responsibilities in terms of project implementation and evaluation defined.

The implementation of the project was challenging because we did not have any previous experience of working in the limited physical space offered by terraces.

The participatory barley and lentil selection in the Kuhlan Affar areas was conducted for three years with the objectives of:

(1)testing the methodology in remote locations characterized by traditional agricultural systems and difficult environments

(2)identifying improved cultivars of barley and lentil.

The initial experiments were conducted in the three villages in the Kuhlan Affar area mentioned earlier and in the research station of the Agricultural Research and Extension Authority (AREA) at Al-Erra, near Sana’a. In each of the four locations, the trial consisted of the same fifty genotypes in both barley and lentil. The 50 barleys included six landraces, collected from different areas in the Northern Highlands of Yemen and obtained from the national Gene bank of Yemen, and improved lines from the Arab Centre for Studies in Arid Dry Lands (ACSAD). The 50 lentil entries included 15 local land races, also obtained from the national Gene bank of Yemen, and 35 entries from the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) lentil breeding programme. In both crops, one local cultivar was used as a common check in each location.

Planting of the barley and lentil trials occurred in June 1999 in Bit Al–Wali (BA) and Hasn Azam (HA), and in July in Al-Ashmor (AA) and Al-Erra (AE) research station (Fig. 13.2). Plots consisted of four rows 2.5 m long and 25 cm apart. The experimental design was the randomized complete block design with two replications hosted in two adjacent terraces. The farmers’ cultural practices were followed. Both planting and harvesting were organized by the AREA researchers and done manually by the host farmer and his family. Planting was done in furrows opened by one-stilted plough pulled by a donkey in the direction of the maximum length of the terrace. This was actually suggested by the farmers and resulted in the plots being oriented as the surrounding farmer’s crop. Harvesting was done by hand.

Fig. 13.2 Research station at Al-Erra and the village of Al-Ashmor at about 3000 m elevation with the participatory barley and lentil breeding experiments. Photo S. Ceccarelli

At the end of the first year, the farmers selected 19, 16 and 21 barley lines in Hasn Azam, Bit Al-Wali and Al-Ashmor, respectively. In lentil, the number of lines selected was 23 in both Hasn Azam and Bit Al-Wali and 21 in Al-Ashmor, respectively. During the second year, the selected lines were evaluated in the same location in which they had been selected, in two replications and in plots of 10 rows at 25 cm distance and 5 m long. The experimental design, field layout, cultural practices, planting and harvesting were as described for the first-year trials.

At the end of the second year, six barley lines were selected in each of the three locations and were tested for a third year in the three villages. The total number of different lines was 12 including 2 of the six landraces. Only one line was commonly selected in all three villages, three lines were common to two villages, and the others two were unique to a specific village. In lentil, the number of lines selected in the second year was 7 in Hasn Azam, 8 in Al-Ashmor and 11 in Bit Al-Wali. The total number of different lines was 17 out of the initial 50 with 6 lines common to two locations. The 17 lines included 8 landraces (or 53% of those present in the first year) and 9 breeding lines (or 26% of those present in the first year). All trials were planted in two replications and in plots of 10 rows at 25 cm distance and 5 m long.

The third-year trials were sufficiently small for both replications to be accommodated on the same terrace.

As this was the first time farmers (both men and women) were involved in evaluating a relatively a large number of lines, the evaluation was initially done through consensus by the group of farmers and resulted for each plot in either discarding or selecting. In the second and third years, the selection procedure was changed at the request of the farmers, since they felt more confident in their individual opinion. This eventually allowed to disaggregate the data according to men and women preferences.

The three years of participatory plant breeding in Yemen ended with the identification of two high yielding barley varieties and three high yielding lentil varieties, which were adopted and cultivated by most of the farmers in locations where in the past centralized and non-participatory breeding was not capable of introducing any new variety (Ceccarelli 2002). As a consequence, there were seed

production skills emerging among the farmers which were translated into a functional and efficient seed production system.

There were much more differences between farmers’ and breeder’s selection in the first and second year when the diversity was higher than in the third year when the number of lines was nearly 1/10th of the initial population. This was particularly true in barley where also genotype x locations interactions played a greater role than in lentil. This suggests that if farmers do participate in the selection process during the initial phases of a breeding programme, the differences in selection by farmers and breeder may determine the final outcome of a participatory breeding programme as compared with a non-participatory programme. An additional implication is that participatory programmes based on a small number of lines, such a participatory variety selection (PVS), are neither likely to exploit the full potential of farmer participation nor can be taken as example of lack of differences in selection criteria of the various participants.

This work demonstrates that with the participation of farmers, it was possible to implement a research programme in remote and difficult to access areas where conventional research did not have any impact. This demonstration affected the policy-makers to the point that participatory research has become part of the strategy of agricultural research in Yemen.

13.6Evolutionary–Participatory Plant Breeding (EPB)

There are several other examples of successful PPB programmes, but despite these successes, PPB has a weakness in requiring the collaboration of a research institute to provide breeding materials and technical support such as experimental designs and statistical analysis. Therefore, the sustainability of a participatory programme depends on the long-term commitment of a research institution, and this is the main weakness of the PPB because it is not possible to count on the participation of an institution on a lasting basis.

An interesting alternative is offered by evolutionary (participatory) plant breeding—participatory is in parenthesis because, though desirable, the participation of an institution is not indispensable. The idea is not new as it was proposed back in 1956 (Suneson 1956). The method consists in planting in farmers’ field’s mixtures of many different genotypes of the same crop, or populations built using early segregating generations, namely materials obtained from crosses. Mixtures and populations will be planted and harvested year after year, and due to the natural crossing (higher in cross-pollinated and lower in self-pollinated crops), the genetic composition of the seed that is harvested is never the same as the genetic composition of the seed that was planted. In other words, the population evolves to become progressively better adapted to the environment (soil type, soil fertility, agronomic practices including organic systems, rainfall, temperature) in which is grown. As the climatic conditions vary from one year to the next, the genetic makeup of the population will fluctuate, but if the tendency is towards hotter and